Germaine de Randamie extended her winning streak to five with her victory over Aspen Ladd in the UFC Sacramento main event Saturday night, and she made some personal history in the process (Transcript via MMA Weekly):
“This is the fastest knockout in my career ever. I don’t know what to say,” de Randamie said during a UFC Sacramento post-fight interview.
The precise speed of the knockout was clocked at 16 seconds. A very impressive figure to be sure, but while de Randamie may have been at a loss for words about her performance, many spectators had a mouthful to say about the stoppage by Herb Dean, accusing the veteran referee of ending the fight prematurely. For de Randamie’s part, her role is strictly that of UFC fighter, a role she performed quite well in the event headliner. But if she were to put her referee hat on, she would have made the same call Herb Dean did:
“I think it was a good stoppage because I really, really rocked her with the punch and I threw another punch,” De Randamie said. “And if Herb Dean wasn’t going to step in, I was going to jump on top of her and finish the fight anyway.
“Why do more damage? She was rocked bad. I hit her and she turned around.”
Aspen Ladd also offered her thoughts on the main event’s conclusion. And while she did not agree with the stoppage, she empathized with the difficulty of making split-second judgment calls in real time, expressing no animus towards referee Herb Dean or his controversial decision.
Do you believe the De Randamie/Ladd stoppage was premature?
